OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — The Omaha Children's Museum lost a big chunk of its annual budget this year. That's forced staff to get creative and keep kids excited to come back — while also keeping visitors safe.
Sounds of life are slowly echoing back into the Omaha museum. Getting to this point took time, patience and creativity.
"It is such an unprecedented time that we had to close months on end,” said Kim Reiner, director of marketing and public relations.
Reiner said the museum shut its doors during its busiest three months due to the pandemic, which impacted their annual budget.
"Part of the adjustments were, how are we going to keep presenting special exhibits where we have half…a smaller portion of the budget,” she said.
The museum's exhibition construction budget was reduced by about 65%, forcing their team to get resourceful with ways to keep visitors coming back for more.
"We thought we could re-purpose some of our older exhibits,” she said. “I am standing in front of part of our castle and this was in enchanted kingdom...an exhibit from 2019. We took some elements from that exhibit and re-purposed it into our fairytale land exhibit."
It's not just their budget that's forced them to change course, they've had to take into account new public health standards.
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